Credit: Far Out / Jethro Tull
Sun 4 October 2026 6:00, UK
What is it about the blues that continues to throw off great musicians?
Led Zeppelin, one of the bands that are famed for their ability to dance around different genres seamlessly, had trouble working out how they could interpret the blues in a way where they were putting together something original. They enjoyed playing around with multiple styles, including the blues, but found eventually that this was too hard to incorporate into their sound.
On their third album, they decided it was too tricky to use effectively, and so it only made an appearance on the song ‘Since I’ve Been Loving You’.
“We always had some blues on our albums. Playing the blues is actually the most challenging thing you can do. It is very hard to play something original,” said Jimmy Page, “‘Since I’ve Been Loving You’ is a prime example. That was the only song on the third album that we had played live prior to our sessions, yet it was the hardest to record. We had several tries at that one. The final version is a live take with John Paul Jones playing organ and foot bass pedals at the same time.”
This was an issue that a lot of bands who played around with prog and psychedelic sounds suffered from, it seems. Ian Anderson has previously praised the work of Led Zeppelin, saying that they were one of the bands that showed prog rock groups how they could effectively take different genres from various periods and corners of the world and merge them into one another.
“Jethro Tull and Led Zeppelin did share that same interest, even passion, for music that was not the normal stuff of rock and roll,” said Anderson, “And perhaps they, too, were influenced in some ways by what influenced me: Indian music, Mediterranean music, and British folk music.”
And yet, while both bands were keen on trying to write using various genres of music, the blues remained the style they found tricky to pin down. It was for this reason that Anderson knew he needed to part ways with the guitarist Mick Abrahams, as while Jethro Tull was attempting to branch out into other genres, Abraham’s background in the blues got in the way of their expansive nature.
Further reading: From The Vault
“Mick Abrahams was a rock ‘n’ roll and blues guitarist,” he said, “Vocally, he had a strong shouty kind of a voice like Rory Gallagher. Mick was a blues guy, and he didn’t react positively to the direction that began to emerge. He didn’t enjoy my efforts in the latter part of 1968 when I started to write songs. Some of which became tracks on Stand Up. He wanted to stay very much in the heart of the musical style that was represented on the first record.”
There is something inherently emotional about the blues. It’s a style of music that relies on the romanticism of the player, as opposed to their technical ability, a complete contrast to the ethos of prog rock. With this genre, there is a lot of technical ability needed, and that doesn’t leave a lot of room for instrumental emotion.
Realistically, any two genres can merge together, but the blues is one of the hardest to incorporate because it relies so much on emotion as opposed to ability. As such, it’s no surprise Mick Abrahams had to part ways with Jethro Tull, as that band could never have gone on to make the music they did while still trying to channel the blues.
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